UPDATE: This screening was a big success, enjoyed by almost a full house of interested community members. Here’s a follow-up note from film maker Mark Kitchell:

Facing BUY US A SONG, our crowdfunding campaign’s deadline of July 31, we are extending it into the fall. By now $10.5K has been raised, enough to license “Uncle John’s Band.” So our biggest concern, the Grateful Dead, is met. Coming up, we have to raise funds for Dave Mallet’’s “Garden Song”; Country Joe & the Fish’s “Fixin’ to Die Rag”; and Springsteen’s “Further on (Up the Road)”. We haven’t gotten a quote from Springsteen yet, so maybe some time on that.

Mount Shasta, CA – Filmmaker Mark Kitchell (Berkeley in the Sixties, A Fierce Green Fire) will be here to screen his new film: EVOLUTION of ORGANIC on Sunday, July 15, 7:30 pm at the Temple of Intention (301 S. Old Stage Rd., Mt. Shasta; $8-20 sliding scale/donation).

This film tells the story of organic agriculture, in the words of those who built the movement. A motley crew of back-to-the-landers, spiritual seekers and farmers’ sons and daughters reject chemical farming and set out to explore organic alternatives.

It’s a heartfelt journey of change, from a small band of rebels to a cultural transformation in the way we grow and eat food. By now organic has gone mainstream, split into an industry oriented toward bringing organic to all people and a movement that has realized a vision of sustainable agriculture. It’s the most popular and successful outgrowth of the environmental impulse of the last fifty years.

EVOLUTION of ORGANIC is not just a history, but looks to exciting and important futures:

The next generation who are broadening organic into no-till and urban farms; Latino growers and eco-fashion; even raising salmon in flooded rice fields

Carbon farming as a solution to climate change, taking carbon out of the air and putting it in the ground where it belongs – “The best news on the planet”

What lies “beyond organic,” from soil microbiology as the new frontier to visions of a regenerative agriculture that restores everything from the ecosphere to the human spirit.

Actress Frances McDormand narrates the film, with a score by Gary Malkin and Dan Alvarez. This special screening is part of a grassroots campaign to fund music licensing of songs by artists including the Grateful Dead, Bruce Springsteen, and Country Joe and the Fish.

DVDs for sale and more information about this campaign will be available at the screening. A portion of the proceeds will also benefit the Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center.